If there ever was a cleric in Middle Earth, his religion would be closest to a Norse god. If this was Narnia and not Middle Earth, however, the cleric’s god would follow Greek tradition as well as a little bit of Norse, which is funny because fantasy writers often confuse or combine Ancient Pagan cultures with the Medieval cultures that share their geographical locations, like confusing Muslim with Ancient Egyptian for example.

The reason why I would say this is because Lord of the Rings was strictly inspired by Norse culture while Narnia was inspired by Greek culture as well as a little bit of Norse, such as Narina being frozen in long winter.

I love these. Too bad none of my friends get them. I guess most Christian, homeschooling moms don’t hang out Sunday nights watching their hubbies play D & D, let alone play along. Man, I miss my rogue, she was fun. :) Too bad Lord of the Rings doesn’t have a chick playing along. That threw them for a loop plenty of times. :)

Mr. Duck, you’re too young. I learned FRPG’s with the original D&D, using the Greyhawk supplement, in the late 1970’s. I think that there were only six specialties: fighters, mages, thieves, clerics, illusionists, and paladins. The latter two were more recent; the original system had only the four.

Just in case you start to run out of material Shamus I think the best thing for all of us is for you to just come up with another campaign and let us just inspire your comic to greatness. Even though I’m sure we’ve probably given you more then enough material to work with for a very long time.

Actually, Harlock, you’re thinking of the BECMI D&D line (Basic Expert Companion Master Immortals, the boxed set names), which started in the early 80s after AD&D and had demihuman races as classes. The original version of D&D from the 70s had only three classes, the Fighting-Man, Magic-User, and Cleric. Others were added in three supplements (Greyhawk, Blackmoor, and Eldritch Wizardry).

Reminds me of a GM I once had for a Star Wars (WEG) campaign We were on an Imperial-held backwater planet (that wasn’t a desert! …much) and we had to hunt down some bandits or something… or visit the administration building, I can’t remember.

Now, we were pretty bored, and the admin building didn’t look much more interesting, so we turned around and walked set off in the opposite direction, out towards the desert (…oh….) to bag us some bandits. But nary had we started walking before the following exchange took place:

“You see a note falling from the sky.”

“Is it in an envelope addressed to us and delivered by a red van with EIIR on the side?”

“No.”

“Sod it, then. Not for me.” (We’d played a few games with this guy.)

“No, it is for you.”

“How do you know?”

“It just is, okay?”

“Fine. I read the note.”

“Finally. It says, ‘Note from God: go to the administration building.'”

RPGs that had four classes? You think THAT was old? By cracky, *I* played the very first RPG that had only TWO classes: Cops ‘n’ Robbers! (Or was that…Cowboys ‘n’ Indians..?) Dice, shmice! We had to use our fingers–our FINGERS! Not even paper and pencil for stats or anything! (grumble, mumble…something about “whippersnappers”..!)

Well I started to play the game after my group of friends picked up Chain Mail . Were there were just Hero Fighters and Mages .
My world is still useing 1.5 D&D rules and Dates Back to 1975 when we started with Chain mail .

I swear you must have been spying on my sessions dude!
I’ve not laughed this hard at something in quite some time, and the best bit is I can share it with my fiancee, she too has been infected with the D&D virus!!!

I love the DM trying to get them up Weathertop. Reminds me of my DM days, you plan all this great content, but the party walks right by the door where all the good stuff was. “There’s a door to your left.” “Yeah, we saw that, we’re pressing forward.” “It’s a really cool door, very inviting.” “Forward we go.” “It’s the kind of door that probably would be made by somebody to keep adventurers away from something really GREAT.” “Uh, cool. So, we go forward…” “DANG! There’s a big rockslide blocking your path… Possible exits are backwards and this door on your left.”

One: I love this!
Two: I haven’t played D&D in forever it makes me sad… but my character was really lame I don’t even remember what name I was obsessed with at the time… Eliza? whatever. The only thing that was NOT lame was that I was half-elf. If I ever get to play again(please,please,PLEASE LET ME PLAY AGAIN,GOD!)I’m going full out. I’m being an elf and Imma have super high hit points, intelligence,charisma,… basically a female Legolas. Which, I might add, comes up in some later comics… nothing like a few gay jokes to spice up your campaign.

I first read this comic more than a year ago and came back to it today so that I could link to it as an example of severe railroading, but I have to say, the line “That is a very specific level of tired,” still makes me laugh every time.

Lol, I have issues making my players rest too! In the last session, despite having fought a Fire elemental and a doppleganger they decided to carry on and the monk (who’s their version of a tank) was nearly killed by 2 Earth elementals. The only character who escaped unscathed was the ranger, who stood at the back shooting and kept running away from the Fire elemental.
All because they didn’t want to have a rest, despite me telling them it was a good idea!